A push to increase college enrolment has seen more than 20 high school students complete a leader workshop aimed at encouraging other youngsters to go into higher education.

The Lead College Preparation Campaigns saw Mirrors kick off the second cohort of its PeerForward programme with 23 pupils from CedarBridge Academy and the Berkeley Institute taking part in a three-day peer leader workshop at the Willowbank Resort.

The PeerForward initiative aims to get student leaders to spearhead school-wide enrolment and pro-college campaigns.

The pupils will now launch drives and services in their high schools to “grow a college-going culture at both schools”.

Kimberley Jackson, programme manager, said: “The students were selected from their peers and schools to serve as peer leaders for the upcoming school year.

“They attended leadership training to hone their intrinsic leadership skills such as self-advocacy, problem-solving and strategic planning.

“Deloitte volunteers worked as writing coaches to support the S4 students with drafting their personal statements.

“The volunteer college coaches opened opportunities to explore a comprehensive list of post-secondary institutions for consideration to create students’ portfolios.

“All volunteers were trained in the PeerForward methodology led by two PeerForward USA team facilitators, Mike Ferron and Tim Spicer.”

Sandra Dill, Mirrors PeerForward programme manager, said: “According to the data collected for the 2021-22 school year, 87 per cent of the S4 students planned to attend college immediately after high school, 8 per cent reported that they will be joining the workforce and 5 per cent were undecided.

“The overarching goal of PeerForward is to raise college attendance and persistence rates for public high school students.

“In one of the programme’s surveys, 99 per cent of last year’s participants said they would recommend the Peer Forward Programme to their peers.

“In fact, 92 per cent of last year’s S3 cohort is returning as S4 Peer Leaders.”